Hi Folks, apologies for the mix up but as the old saying goes, better late than never!

One of the many cool thngs about interactive whiteboards is that allow the teacher to make quick powerful points that can grab the attention the class.

They are great for starters, plenaries and brain rests in the middle of a lesson.

However, it should not be forgotten that they are not an end in themselves, but a tool to help guide or sign post the student to the lesson objectives.

When I first unpacked my first new interactive whiteboard, I remember thinking that it was the answer to all my dreams. Poor, mad fool that I was, I quickly discovered that students can soon become 'board' with being fed the same diet every lesson. Variety is the spice of life and good lessons!

However, through experimentation and stealing good ideas from other people I soon developed some interesting ideas.

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 03:00 AM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

One of the easiest starters or plenaries to use on an interactive whiteboard is a thinking skills review triangle.

Students go for 5 bullet points in the back of their books on a historical question such as 'What were the causes of the FWW.' They then feedback to a class discussion during which either the teacher or a student type up the resuts into the template of a thinking skills triangle using a software package like smart notes.

I should add at this point that a thinking skills triangle is divided up into 5 equal sections.

This clever stuff starts when the teacher kicks off the debate on which reason was the most important. Students can then discuss in groups or in a whole class forum and then feedback to the next stage.

The teacher or a member of the group can then organise the ideas into some sort of order with the most important at the top. The key aim is to get the students to explain their order and back it up with reasons, facts and evidence. This can lead to some really great debates and arguments!

At the end of that session the students can then copy the triangle off the board and use it as a writing frame for a paragraph or an extended piece of writing. If someone is away then it can be easily printed off later on!

I have also used this type of task to get students to anaylse a picture or a historical source.

However, this is one of several graphic organisers that I've used on an interactive whiteboard.

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 05:09 PM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

Another really cool graphic organiser to use on an interactive whiteboard is a Ven Diagram.

One of the tasks I set my Year 10s the other day, whilst I was out on a course, was to read a chapter 2 on the 1932 Presidential Election between Hoover & FDR in the Longmans edition of the New Deal. As part of the cover work I asked them to produce a thinking skills review triangle on why Hoover lost the election.

On my return we worked through my PowerPoint on the topic and then as a brain rest in the middle of the lesson I handed out a Ven Diagram and asked them to compare and contrast Hoover with FDR.

I gave them 4 minutes to complete this task. It is critical to maintain the pace to keep the students engaged in the big idea.

Once thier time was up they then fed back their ideas and we used the whiteboard to sort them into the correct positions in the Ven Diagram. It was short, pacey and linked into the lesson objectives at the start. We got some great answers on 'Rugged Individualism,' 'The Forgotten Man,' 'Self made Millionaire,' etc. The key point is this, it was short, sharpe, pacey and above all simple to do.

The great thing about producing this sort of resource on an interactive whiteboard is that you can recyle the activity for the next lesson by mixing up the bullet points and asking a student to reorganise them into the correct sections on Ven Diagram. Highly visual and some clever word beginning with 'K' which I can't remember at 1.30 am in the morning!

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 03:08 AM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

One of the most obvious uses of an interactive whiteboard is that they can be used to edit and annotate pictures, diagrams and even film clips using the colour pens. I have even been known to use my interactive whiteboad to colour in or even repair some of my pictures and diagrams.

One of the cool things about using PowerPoint on an interactive whiteboard is that you can actually save your annotations as part of your presentation!

I'm not a great artist, but one of the older members of my department is brilliant. In the past he would always draw them using chalk. Getting him to draw some of them on the interactive whiteboard was hard, but very rewarding in the long run as we were able to save and recyle them throughout the department.

I often cheat and import a picture of someone famous and use them as the centre piece of a spider graph or 'idea shower' (brainstorm)!

Whatever you decide to use the interactive whiteboard for at the end of the day it is the dialectic or dicussion that takes place between the student, class and the teacher that is important in developing their thinking skills. It is a tool, not a centre piece of a lesson or you will soon find that the novelty will wear off!

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 03:09 AM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

So if you are lucky enough to have a reliable broadband connection into your classroom then you can do some really cool stuff on an interactive whiteboard using the internet.

One of my favour sites is the BBC history website:

www.bbc.co.uk/history/multimedia_zone/animations/

There are some really great animated steam engines which are great for getting across complex ideas such as rotatory motion and how the inventors can connect a steam engine to the factory floor. The cotton mill animation is a must see as you will recognise the famous scene that the've animated.

You can use this website, the history channel and bitesize to get students to come to the front to select the answers, build steam engines and do any number of clever things such as fling the teacher. The important thing is to keep the fun centred on the learning objectives that you set out at the start of the lesson.

Of course my all time favour site is of course school history. If you want to ensure that your internet connection doesn't let you down you can actually download many of Andrew Field's brilliant games by right clicking over the file name and saving the target to whatever location suits your purposes.

You can also use your interactive whiteboard pens to tag to write notes all over webpages. Setting up a discussion which involves underlining key words, concepts, facts or quotes with the highligter pen can help to teach the students how scan read and research topics. It sounds clever, but it is very simple and easy to do!

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 05:10 PM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

One difficult question that many teachers have often asked me in the past is should I have a mobile interactive whitboard or fix it onto the wall.

To be honest it just depends upon the way that you have set out your room. I am spoilt for space as mine used to be an old domestic science classroom. Unfortunately my roof reguarly leaks so fixing it to the ceiling is a bad idea. I chose the mobile option for two reasons. Firstly to avoid the leaks and secondly so that I could still use my OHP screen.

One of the problems with interactive whiteboards is that schools often go for the cheapest option, which means a small board! If I want to do a PP presentation, watch a video or DVD using my data projector, then being able to move the whiteboard out of the way and pulling the data projector trolley back means that I can make the picture bigger or smaller to suit my puposes.

Fixing an mobile TV aerial into the back of your video and tunning it in means that you can watch the footy or tennis on the big screen!

The big disadvantage of the mobile option is that you can have a lot of cables on the floor for students to trip over.

The main perceived advantage of a mobile whiteboard is that you can move it around other classrooms. I have never found this easy or practical!

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

Anyway folks I'm off to bed. Once again, apologies for mixing up my dates. I'm running a seminar tomorrow (today) in Rotherham and another two on Friday and Saturday in Leeds for SHP. I've been busy getting everything toether for the big day and completely forgot.

I will check back in tonight (Tuesday) after 8pm, once I've got the kids tucked in bed with their favourite bedtime story about a famous nasty old King whose stomach exploded shortly after he died, because he never ate enough fruit or veg. (He also had it coming) Any guesses?

Regards

Roy Huggins
Mexborough School

Edited by rhuggins, 29 June 2004 - 01:37 AM.

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

Fixed or mobile - I would tend to say Fixed. The mobile is not really that mobile and needs constant readjustment etc. I prefer the fixed models as they offer a greater ease of access. In the mean time I was wondering whether there was scope to start an area on the SchoolHistory site for Interactive whiteboard documents i.e templates such as the Venn Diagram and others?

I think back to the use of Smartboards - I was lucky when I started teaching four years ago, I was given a Smartboard in my room and since then I have always managed to have access to one. The problem I find is that some teachers see them as a souped-up extension of a standard whiteboard and nothing else. Even PowerPoint has its limitations. The best practice for Interactive whiteboard technology has to remain in that word interactive - without it we have little more than an expensive whiteboard (Do others agree?)

What has training been like on Smartboards or have people been expected to just go straight into it and learn from it? Anyway is that perhaps an on-going problem, in that the training for this new technology is not cutting through the basics and showing us the true potential of this technlogy.

Bernard Woolley: Have the countries in alphabetical order? Oh no, we can't do that, we'd put Iraq next to Iran.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bernard Woolley: That's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.

There is some very good backup and training with smartboards. If you purchase one of their interactive whiteboards they will come in and do unlimited demonstrations and training for staff in order to promote their product.

If its free grab it and run with it. You should find their address on the back of the board.

There are two excellent features of a smart board! Firstly it comes bundled with a software package called smartnotes. This software can be installed on an unlimited number of Pcs and laptops in your school. The cool thing about this software is that you can achieve a lot of the interactive features of a whiteboard by just using a data projector and your mouse. Secondly, if you remove one of the pens from its tray you can write using your finger tip. It impresses the kids!

Hot tip! If you struggle trying to move text around on an interactive whiteboard, try using your nails rather than your finger tip! This discovery has led to a new generation of interactive whiteboards being issued with a stylus or pen to move stuff around.

Regards

Roy

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

The training is okay - the school I am at has had it but I feel that not enough is done to show the innovative use as said it appears to be the case that many teachers see them as an extension of the normal whiteboard. One of the big bonuses has been the increase in text/handwriting recognition - a much improved feature

Bernard Woolley: Have the countries in alphabetical order? Oh no, we can't do that, we'd put Iraq next to Iran.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bernard Woolley: That's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.

If any of you have watched the government literacy video where the teacher produces a model or demonstration answer on why the Roman Army was so successful or why William won the Battle of Hastings then you recognise this model of teaching. Try it, it works!

I might as a starter of gone for 5 bullet points in 2 minutes with one half of the class on the disadvanatges of a Motte & Bailey Castle and with the other half of the class, the advantages of a Square Keep castles.

The students feed back into two thinking skill review triangles and we would then debate the order of piority using smart notes on the interactive whiteboard.

This warm up exercise would take maybe 15 minutes.

I would then change task and use some looping cards on the literary conventions of a formal letter. This task would be followed up by posibly looking at an example of a similar letter which we might take apart on the interactive whiteboard using one of the highligter pens. I would use the schools marking policy to identify paragraphs, spellings, key words etc. I may get stuents to underline or mark the example on the interactive whiteboard and get them to explain their decisions.

This part of the process might take 30 minutes and at my school I would then do a KWL triangle review for my plenary.

The aim of the next lesson is to produce a formal letter to Richard de Warren recommending that he replace his old Motte & Bailey Castle with a new Square Keep at Conisbrough.

We might start this lesson by getting students to feed back their results from the KWL triangle from the previous lesson and posssibly raise outstanding questions. We would look at a pursuasive writing frame for useful phrases.

We would then move onto the cool part which is the demonstration writing using the interactive whiteboard!

There are three ways of doing it. One is obviously writing on the board and using the text converter (My hand writing is so bad it only occasionally works). The second is to write using the key pad on your laptop, whilst the third and very cool way is to use a wireless key board which you hold in the crook of your left arm!

I would begin the demonstration writing on a template in smartnotes and start the discussion off by saying to the students: 'So how should I address or start the letter up.' They as a class suggest answers and we democratically chose an option and then begin the writing process. They might lift phrases or key words from the pursasive prompt sheet.

I would continue in this way for another 10 minutes until I had written about half of the letter. I would then stop and ask the students to produce their own, which they might finish off for homework.

As a plenary at the end of the lesson I may get a student to draw a ring around all the correct litearcy conventions or pursasive language on the model answer on the interactive whiteboard.

I've done a very similar lesson to this on about 6 separate occasions. Nicky has an excellent writing frame for a formal letter layout and I have a great prompt sheet for pursasive language.

Thi type of literacy lesson on an interactive whiteboard or even a data projector with smart notes will go down a treat. You can do similar letters of complaint to General Haigh or even do the same trick with a personal letter to a close family friend, which obviously uses different literary conventions.

Remember the day you stop learning is the day you die! Nothing worthwhile doing is ever going to be easy. Have fun playing around and experimenting.

Regards

Roy Huggins
Mexborough

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen." - Epictetus

In your experiences so far, would you think I'd be correct in stating that there are a few different groups of people who use interactive whiteboards.

1. Those who are keen to push their teaching to the limits, exploring every possible potential use - perhaps 1-2 % of whiteboard owners.

2. Those who use the whiteboard for a bit of Powerpoint and Internet work - perhaps - 98% of users.

It is so infuriating not to have one of these devices yet - but I will have one for the new term thankfully. I guess one real use of this seminar would be to offer clear and usable reasons highlighting why a history teacher should have an interactive board rather than a projector onto his / her standard board.